The Raid 2 (2014)

★★★ / 👎

A sequel which uses its increased budget to magnify the flaws of the first film, Raid 2 ditches the confined-location cop thriller in favor of a meandering gangster saga punctuated by gore effects that would be grotesque if they weren’t so tedious. It’s like watching a film from an alternate-universe Michael Bay who actually understands how to stage and edit action, but is just as indifferent to coherent narrative.

I hated this movie, but there’s no question that it does exactly what it sets out to do, even if I thought the most impressive thing about the whole movie was the Foley work.